German Shotglasses...and lots Of them! Part 2

Article about: I also like to collect trench art and have some schnapsglasses made of 20mm German Flak shells. But does anyone has a period photo these glasses are in use? I have not ever seen a single one

Actually, the only photos that I've ever seen myself have been soldiers using the Flare gun casings to drink schnapps from. There's one famous photo that I've seen quite often of several flare gun casings siting on an out door table with booze bottles next to them. But the brass case glasses are So prevalent-just about every digger you talk to has either dug them, they were extremely well known. 99 out a 100 were not engraved, but were simply cut down,polished and flared out, but it's the 1% where you ran into an artistic Soldat with time on his hands that you Look for!

I actually came across another nice example and thought I'd show it to you for a contrast. It shows you how if you weren't being shot at 24/7 and hunkering down in a dirt dug bunker and had the time and the tools like the Luftwaffe Flak guys had, just what a soldier could do if he felt like it. This one is from the Luftwaffe 24th Flak Division-76th Flak Regiment-751 Light Flak Battalion-Battery 137. This Flak battery defended Vienna and several industrial factory locations-the Bruck an der Mur industrial area in particular. It eventually was, basically, destroyed and ceased to exist as of July 1,1944. What was left of it was absorbed into a conglomerate of leftovers called the "7th Flak Brigade". I've included a photo of it next to one from the 79th Infantry Division that was destroyed in Stalingrad. Just a wee bit of difference in quality, when you have the time and the tools to play around with making Trench Art!

After much hunting, I finally found another genuine shotglass lately. The fakers have begun cranking them out big time now and it's most disheartening to see the numbers showing up for sale of late-some even artificially aged. I found this one in the stock of an extremely untrustworthy Polish seller who was up to his ears in horrible fake rubbish, but to be clever, he had seeded a few Real pieces in amongst his garbage, and this little glass was one such piece. Of Course, it is said to be "found near Stalingrad", but nowadays, nearly everything carries this statement. I think the sellers feel that there is some sort of magic selling mystique about the name. A pity, as a person will then never actually know just where the item they bought really came from, but does it really matter with things like these glasses anyway. They could have been made in France or who knows where, and carried with the moving troops into Russia, Poland, Hungary, or anywhere. In the case of this glass, I just thought it had an interesting design and it was the only thing I picked up from the seller that day. It was relatively cheap, in any case, so no big deal anyway.

2 New Arrivals

Here are a couple of new arrivals. The brass one is a Japanese case-which is not really my field of interest-but it was Cheap and unusual,so it got picked up. Note the British 1939 3 Pence coin on the base. The aluminum flare gun case was dug in Karelia and is so marked. Theoretically, I Should have 4 more pieces arriving soon and will post them if they do. Unfortunately, coming from Russia, one never can predict the mails these days.

I've had 1 example for a few years now but only really value it as a curiosity given the likelihood of fakery. It WAS posted from Volgograd is all I can say that might add weight to originality but who's to say the crafty fakers don't simply sell their wares through a Volgograd post office?

I remember that glass from eBay, Glenn! Like I said, the fakers are getting onto these pretty good now and it's getting harder and harder to find a genuine one these days, but your glass looks good. The corrosion and the patina as well are fully down into the tooling marks. The brass itself also bears marks from both usage and burial. I've passed on dozens of these over the years from their appearances and this is similar in design to one that is in my collection, so I was fine with letting it go on to some one else. The digger that sold it is one that I have dealt with on several occasions and is pretty reliable. I would have no worries with it!